Hey, It's Highschool
by ChocoBunnyDrops
Summary: In between fleeing from Ursarings in Pokemon 101, barely surviving the Aptitude of Coordination Test/ACT, and preparing for the end of the year Junior Grand Festival, they still manage to find time for-"DAWN! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? STOP STARING AT PAUL AND HELP ME FIND A WAY TO BEAT DREW!" But hey, it's highschool. Semi-AU. Main pairing Ikari with a side of Contest. R&R please!


**Hey all! I've gotten back into reading Pokemon fics (particularly those of my beloved Ikarishipping) and was suddenly inspired to make my own :) I know, it's been forever since I updated, but hopefully I can be more active and get into the flow of writing from now on. I'm still working on figuring out how to format this, so I'm sorry if the lines are too close together or the spacing is weird. **

**I think that's all I wanted to say, so without further ado, here's the first installment of what I hope will be a very long, very enjoyable read~**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, places, and/or pokemon presented in this story. All are the property of the extremely talented Satoshi Sajiri. **

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Autumn. A time of hay mazes and hot chocolate, of cheerfully patterned scarves and the _crunch crunch crunch_ of leaves beneath your shoes. But most of all, a time of beginnings.

Dawn Berlitz woke to _Downtown Girl_ blaring through the room, rudely interrupting her dream of winning the Grand Festival—

_Her lips are red and those hips are turning heads, because she's a downtown girl, a downtown gi—_

Groaning, Dawn shut off her alarm clock and burrowed beneath the soft warmth of her comforter. It was too early, too early for the rays of sunlight to be filtering into her room...

Within seconds a second alarm went off, once again blasting the annoyingly upbeat chorus of Dawn's current favorite song. Like the alarm before, it was abruptly cut off mid-sentence so the bluenette could resume her slumber. While she wasn't _quite_ as bad as May at getting up in the mornings (that would be an achievement in itself), Dawn Berlitz was as much a morning person as she was a Gym Leader: which is to say, not at all. 

Suddenly, the girl's eyes shot open and she leaped out of bed, ripping her blankets off and jamming her feet into the wrong slippers without a second thought. The alarm clock lay abandoned in her mad dash to the bathroom, red lights continuing to blink 7:23 as if its life depended on it (Dawn's certainly did). Speaking of which, said girl nearly fell to her knees and wept at the sight of what greeted her in the mirror. Dark blue locks stuck out every which way, frizzing out like they had spent the past two weeks in a rainforest rather than her hometown in Sinnoh, and stubbornly refused to stay flat despite her constant attempts to push them down. _'Why do bad things happen to good people,'_ her inner monologue wailed, _'and on the first day of school, no less! What did I ever do to deserve this?'_ That was it, she couldn't take it anymore. Ten minutes of fruitless struggle had left her no choice (and no time for breakfast). Pulling out a familiar red-and-white orb, she pressed its white center and tossed the ball into the air. 

"Piplup!" she cried, releasing the water-type, "Use bubblebeam on my hair! No no no no no, we're going to be so late!" 

Glaring sternly at its owner for oversleeping again, the little penguin simply piplupped in exasperation and obeyed. Soon, a stream of glittering cerulean bubbles engulfed its owner's head and successfully tamed the mass of blue tresses. 

"Thank you Piplup! I promise I'll make it up to you later!" Piplup piplupped indignantly in agreement and placed its flippers on its hips, as if to say "You better!" 

Hair catastrophe resolved, Dawn dressed in record time and bolted down the stairs, grabbing her already-packed backpack on the way. She couldn't, just couldn't, be late on the first day of school. What would everyone think of her? Her teachers would instantly hate her and there'd be absolutely nothing she could do about it! What if her friends didn't save her a seat, or she'd be scheduled for the wrong classes and by the time she arrived every other class was full- 

"Mom!" Her desperate cry was muffled by the slices of bread she was hurriedly stuffing into her mouth, "Can thrw give m' a ride to schwul? Fwhease!" Dawn was practically choking now, one hand attempting to spread jam on her toast while the other tugged on a knee-high pink boot. Why couldn't time slow down, by one minute or one second, _anything_. 

Johanna Berlitz, long since used to her daughter's antics, chuckled and replied, "Of course dear. I suspected something like this might happen." A knowing smile made its way onto her face; even at forty years of age, Dawn's mother remained as beautiful as ever, the only indication of her age being the streak of gray beginning to make its way across midnight blue hair the same shade as Dawn's. 

For as long as she could remember, Dawn had wanted to be exactly like her mother. Johanna was kind, elegant, and a former Top Coordinator to boot. Even when her father died shortly after she was born, Johanna had remained strong and cared for Dawn as well as any other new mom could. She was, in Dawn's eyes, perfect. 

Along with her good looks, Dawn had inherited her mother's passion for Pokemon contests. She dreamed of becoming a Top Coordinator just as her mom had, but to do so she would first have to complete Pokemon High School and earn her Trainer's License. 

Although trainers received their starter Pokemon on their tenth birthday and were allowed to start building a team soon after, they weren't _full_ trainers until they had gone through the Pokemon Education system and passed a practical exam. That's where schools like Magnolia Academy came in: places where aspiring trainers could study the Pokemon world in a safe environment (the alternative being ten year olds wandering everywhere with at best a fifth grade level of reading and arithmetic) and gain the skills necessary to fulfill their dreams. 

So while Magnolia had a focus on Pokemon-related courses, they also required standard classes such as math and literature. Dawn participated in them willingly enough, but her true interests lay in the Coordinating program that was one of the best in the world. _Everyone_ knew that if you wanted a shot at the Grand Festival after graduation, Magnolia Academy was the place to go. Students flocked from all regions in order to be under the tutorage of the famous Fantina: Gym leader, Top Coordinator, and _mentor_ to the select few that stood out in the Junior Grand Festival held at the end of each school year. It was this that every Coordinator in the school worked towards, a chance to show off their skills to the whole of the Coordinating world and perhaps be lucky enough to privately train with Fantina, and this that had been eluding Dawn's grasp for the past two years. Well, that would soon be no more! Dawn had a feeling that this was her year, the one where she would finally come out on top and grow one step closer to accomplishing her dream. 

That is, if she ever made it to school. Throwing on her trademark scarf (the mornings were just beginning to take on their chill), Dawn hugged her mom gratefully before running out towards the car. 

"Thanks Mom! I'll make you proud today, I promise!"

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**Wow, this might be the longest consecutive thing I've ever written. Heads up, the next couple of chapters are probably going to be a bit boring what with setting up the world and explaining how everything works, so please bear with me! My particular take of the Pokemon Highschool thing is inspired by Artemis173's Heroes Grace (which is totally awesome and you should all check it out), but there are some differences which shall hopefully be explained later~ While this story isn't going to be a complete AU, it's not going to be completely canon so keep that in mind as you're reading. Tons of the minor details of this story are going to be my own headcanon (spoiler alert: all of Magnolia Academy and the Pokemon Education System). **

**Fyi, the song that was Dawn's alarm is Downtown Girl by Hot Chelle Rae. I've always imagined Dawn as someone who listens to Pop, so it makes sense that her alarm is something nice and upbeat to wake her up first thing in the morning~ I'm totally a fan of assigning characters certain songs as ringtones or alarm clock music, so if you have any recommendations don't be shy and PM me/post a review :) I don't bite, I swear! **

**As always, comments and criticism are appreciated! Thanks for reading! **

**~Vy **


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